It turns out Kaitlin took a sleep class when she was in college, and she had a chance to observe and analyze a sleep study. The idea was to have two students be the subjects and the rest of the class be the observers/data analysts. Unfortunately the first volunteer was worried about being able to sleep, so he took a hot bath, ate a lot cheese (not sure why this step), and smoked marijuana to help him relax. The results were such a mess that they canceled the second volunteer and substituted a teaching assistant.
Needless to say, if Andy’s results are unusual it will not be because he smoked pot. 🙂
What DID he smoke then?
Fat chance. 😀
I know sleep is important. Yet can’t help thinking that people are obsessed with it. Our body/our brain self regulate. Please don’t laugh, I know that last sentence sounds (and is) idiotic. However, there is a grain of truth in every idiocy. I think one of the sadder parts of getting old – and I see this with my mother – that the older you get the less sleep you need. And the younger you are – my “case study” being the Angel – the more you need. It’s fascinating how protective he is of his sleep. Always has been. And how he (and his friends) prove to me again and again that the innocent will sleep – through thunder and lightning. And no, unless instructed to do so, I never wake him, never have (see ‘self regulating’). I myself am happy to sleep as little as possible. Gives me so much more time to do things. Admittedly, I do have cat napping down to a fine art. Catnapping not impinging on my activities: After all, what’s ten minutes time out here or there?
Wishing Andy all the best. My advice? Forget pills. Go with the flow. Don’t obsess. Nature knows best.
U
Young people are tired at night because they’re so active all day. Old people sit around most of the day & aren’t tired at night. It doesn’t help when you hear/read that not getting 7 or 8 hrs of sleep cuts down your life span.
Catnaps are great if you’re able to do them. I remember from way back that Doris Day (the actor) said she took a lot of catnaps. I looked up her bio. to see if she’s still alive. Yes & there’s a recent pop-per-a-zi (spell?) photo. She looks GREAT & she’s 89.
Sorry, Ursula. Andy doesn’t obsess. He keeps active but his lack of sleep means he doesn’t feel well.
BHB,
A lot of young people are sedentary and have no trouble sleeping. Andy is very active, but it doesn’t help.
I had a sleep study one time. It turned out to be another issue with Fibromyalgia, again. However, ‘cat nap’ is my middle name.
I sincerely hope things work out for Andy. It’s awful to drag around wondering what the heck is going on!
I wish Andy could take cat naps — I would never have survived without them. He only slept 2 1/2 hours last night. I don’t know how he manages to soldier on.
Your last sentence reminds me of one of our favorite jokes: Inside every old person is a young one asking, “How in the heck did this happen?”
There’s endless debate about how long you should sleep. Six hours, eight hours? But surely depth of sleep must be important as well – six hours of really deep sleep must be as good as eight hours of shallower sleep?
Apparently we need a certain amount of deep sleep as well as REM sleep. One way to judge if we’re getting the right amount and quality of sleep is how we feel the next day.
The thing that interests me is when I sleep well, my bed is a mess when I wake up. Clearly part of my sleep is very active. I don’t understand it, but at the moment it’s working well for me.